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3 Al-Qaeda militants killed in Abyan: Yemen army

Mohamed al-Samei Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Yemeni army said Wednesday that its troops had killed three "Al-Qaeda terrorists" and injured ten others in clashes in the southern province of Abyan.

SANAA – The Yemeni army said Wednesday that its troops had killed three "Al-Qaeda terrorists" and injured ten others in clashes in the southern province of Abyan.

"Three Al-Qaeda terrorists were killed and ten others injured in blows dealt by security forces and popular committees yesterday [Tuesday] in the Al-Mahfad district in Abyan," the Defense Ministry quoted an unnamed military source as saying on Wednesday.

According to the source, an operation was staged aimed at flushing militants out of the southern province.

The source did not state whether the clashes left any dead or injured among security personnel.

On Tuesday, the Yemeni army said its troops had killed five Al-Qaeda leaders in security operations in the country's restive south.

Military sources had earlier said that five Yemeni soldiers had been killed in clashes with suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the country's Shabwah and Abyan provinces.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants remain active in several parts of southern Yemen, from where they continue to stage sporadic attacks on army and police targets.

The past week saw stepped-up clashes between militants and army forces in the south in which dozens of people were killed.

Yemen has been dogged by turmoil since pro-democracy protests in 2011 forced autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 33 years in office.

In the three years since, authorities have struggled to restore law and order.